CUSO-VSO's Youth Employment Strategy

March 28th, 2011, CUSO-VSO and Kallpa one of the local partners held a conference for youth employment centres in Peru in Bolivia. This was a very special event because it celebrated the work that CUSO-VSO is doing in Bolivia and Peru in the area of Youth Employment.

Over half of the volunteers with CUSO-VSO in Peru are a part of Kallpa. The Centro de Jovenes y Empleo - CJE is one way that Kallpa is contributing to the development of youth. The CJE provides opportunities for young people to access job-based resources and enhance their capacities to find a job or to become self-employed. Many of the CUSO-VSO folk work in this area giving workshops and developing programs.

The CJE's are based on a concept from a Canadian organisation called Carrefour Jeunesse-Emploi de l'Outaouais in Gatineau, Quebec. Strangely I came across this organisation when doing some research on volunteer centres in Canada for Oxfam Canada before I came to Peru but I didn't put two and two together until I got here. Anyhoo, this partnership has been growing for a few years now. The youth employment centre in Gatineau is involved in sharing information and best practices with the CJE's here in Peru and in La Paz, Bolivia. All of the organisations are working right not to help support the growth of a new centre in Santa Cruz, Bolivia where CUSO-VSO recently sent a South-South volunteer from the CJE in Peru to help develop their programs.

It's amazing to observe the transfer of information and skills that is taking place between Peru and Bolivia thanks to the leadership at both CUSO-VSO and Kallpa.

Check out this YouTube video from CUSO-VSO about it the CJE in San Juan de Miraflores, Lima! No seriously, click here! It’s got English subtitles!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rywjhjovUq0